Resources+for+Teaching+Language+Conventions

Grammar (Language Conventions) in Writing Workshop

Resource:


 * Anderson, Jeff. 2005. //Mechanically Inclined.// Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.**

Particularly note Chapter 3: "Weaving Grammar and Mechanics into Writer's Workshop" and the extensive lessons listed in the second section of the book.

Take-away items:


 * 1. Organization of and rules for Writer's Notebook**

Sections of notebook:

"Writing" (largest section, for freewriting and note-taking and pasting in rules about grammar/mechanics, etc.) "Writer's Eye (I)" to encourage students to explore topics they'd like to write about related to themselves

Example: //When I Was Little: A Four Year Old's Memoir of her Youth// by Jamie Lee Curtis, used not only to explore familiar topics but to discuss subordinate clauses and comma usage after subordinating conjunction (AAAWWUBBIS)

"Word and Phrase Palette" a collection of notes about active verbs, specific nouns, adjectives and figurative language that students enjoy in their reading and would like to imitate

"Gems" Full sentences and longer sections of text for further examination: Students "hunt paragraphs that make the reader stop, bend over, pick up the gem and see it sparkle in the light from many angles." (Anderson, p. 40)

RULES for Writer's Notebook:

Never tear a page out of your notebook.

Leave a fly page up front, just like in books.

Number pages only on the right-hand side, starting after the fly page.

Write the page number on the bottom right-hand side.

Only write on the right-hand pages of the notebook. Keep the left-hand pages blank for revising, rethinking, and tinkering. (condensed from Anderson, p. 30)


 * 2. Visual Scaffolds including "Editor's Checklist" (Wall Chart created with students and spin-off charts for conventions that need further explanation)**

AAWWUBBIS FANBOYS


 * 3. Lesson planning around mechanics:**

a. Mini-lessons in grammar (modeling examination of text)

Example: have students write a sentence in their notebooks and ask them to explore why they think it is a sentence. Give the sentence rule: subject + verb = sentence

Discuss two-word sentences.

Look at longer sentences, and pare them down into subject and verb.

b. Using high-quality mentor texts to teach grammar and mechanics in context:

Jerry Spinelli's //Loser// contains the sentence "They race." Use another sentence from //Loser// and pare it down to subject and verb. Mentor texts allow us to model and think aloud in deciphering language conventions.

c. Visual scaffolds, such as wall charts and cues pasted into writer's notebooks

Example: "Editor's Checklist," and spin-off charts (What makes a sentence?)

d. Regular, short routines that help students spot and correct errors automatically

Example: "Express-lane edits" that allow students to focus on one or two key mechanical errors. "Three items or less," such as in the supermarket.

If students find changes, they write down their correction.

e. Activities that reinforce mechanical rules yet encourage students to "play" with language conventions.

Example: Sentence smack-down

Games and fun approaches to learning language conventions:

Poetry with parts of speech (ex., diamante poems) Letter-writing (get "thrown" a part of speech to use) (See Matthews, Paul, below) Mad Libs (or the online knock-off, Mad Glibs) Word Walls (or sentence walls) Diagramming as a puzzle Creating an illustrated power point Grammar Rock (part of the Schoolhouse Rock series)


 * Resource:**
 * Matthews, Paul. 1994. //Sing Me the Creation.// Stroud, UK: Hawthorn Press**

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